Hi Brett!
I'm going through the same thing all the time an routinely switch between OF, Things and TaskPaper and yet have to find the best working solution. After reading this I wondered if you still stick with TaskPaper?
Cheers
Hi Alex
I could not understand, how to place shortcuts in the TP-To Quick Entry.applescript
my shortcut for task paper is "command ." please help
Hi Nitin, I updated the help on the Github page. The short answer is to change the first two lines of code to:
set _shortcutModifier to {command down}
set _shortcutKey to "."
Thanks Alex....The script is not working for me. in safari, it copies the url and then goes to the cursor goes to the address bar, at the end of second letter. if the tab opened is of gmail, then it pastes the copied urls of gmail tab into the search box of gmail. it does copy the desired stuff in mail too. but opens the message after copying the subject and address. if have tried using alfred and keyboard maestro. Please help again
I'm just looking at TP for tracking bugs/enhancements too. However, I often have a longish note that goes along with a task item (email details from a user). When I put this all in the resulting document looks odd and doesn't work quite right due to line feeds in the note. There doesn't seem to be a way to hide notes or associate a long note with a particular task. Are you capturing notes with the task too or just tasks?
There have been quite a number of times when I've tried to figure out how to replace omnifocus with taskpaper. The solution i had for Perspectives was using a TextExpander snippet to fill in the search query. 3 keystrokes would pull up the perspective.
Having thought it out numerous times, I would get so excited to try it out. Then reality hits me. SimpleText sucks a**. Big time. It's corrupted my files on a consistent basis. It's so disappointing that I want to abandon it at times.
However, Dropbox syncing? That unicorn of an update would be enough for it to challenge Omnifocus. I would proudly pledge my allegiance back to TP.
Brett,
You are so right I have been going back and forth from Things and OmniFocus for years and it had been driving me pretty nuts. Back in April when I wrote a post about TaskPaper for NonstopHonolulu.com I feel in love with it's simplicity. Adding a few scripts and some services will add a buch more functionality to my flow. Thanks for the share.
There is a script called SavedSearch on the Taskpaper wiki that allows to "save perspectives".
I also used simple AppleScripts, like the one below, to which I would assign a keyboard shortcut in the, now defunct, AppleScript menu of Taskpaper. I guess it could now be triggered using KeyboardMaestro, FastScripts, Apptivate, etc. I'd rather have the AppleScripts menu back though…
tell application "TaskPaper"
set the search field string of the front document to "project = Inbox"
end tell
For start/due dates I ran the StartAndDueDates script using cron every morning. It can also handle repeated tasks. I added a line to the script so that it would run for a specific Taskpaper file, rather than for the frontmost file.
I also made a custom Quick Entry script that worked a bit like Things, where it'd pull up links from Mail, Safari, Chrome, a selected file, a song from iTunes, etc. I'll have to share it one day…
Alex: please share your scripts.
I put the scripts on Github. There is the one for the Quick Entry panel as well as the "GoTo" ones that replicate the Perspective behavior of Omnifocus.
The other ones I mentioned are directly available on the Hogbay TaskPaper wiki.
Thanks Alex, you're very kind!
I discovered the WK myself but nevertheless it stops at quick entry panel and doesn't paste anything; it seems to me that the problem can be found here:
--Open quick entry panel, paste as a comment and put cursor to enter task
if found then
tell application "System Events"
--
delay 0.3
keystroke _shortcutKey using _shortcutModifier
delay 0.1
keystroke return
keystroke tab
keystroke "v" using command down
key code {123, 126} using command down -- left and up
key code {124, 124} -- right twice
end tell
thanks again
amelchi
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Thanks Alex
now (after opening the quick entry panel) it says: where is webkit?
amelchi
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Hello Alex,
please I am not able to make the Quick Entry script working... some example? thanks
amelchi
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I can edit them in nvALT, sync them to the TaskPaper iOS app or any iOS text editor, and access them on multiple machines easily.
Do you sync using the Simpletext client? Presumably Dropbox too?
I bought a TaskPaper licence just over a year ago but gave up on it because the Mac/iOS syncing let me down during a few big projects. Tasks were duplicated, tags went missing - it was a bit of a nightmare. Bit of a shame because, like you, I like the portability that you get with text files. Especially useful because I often use different computers that I don't own.
Switched back to Things (iOS only, not on the Mac), which, whilst a bit of a pain not having it on the Mac (wifi syncing doesn't cut it for me) is really great on the iPhone. TaskPaper lacks the polish Things has — swiping to mark as done never seems to swipe "just right".
Brett - what are you doing for recurring tasks? I love Taskpaper but wish it could handle repeats. I recent jumped to Things again for a few days (after a year in TP) to re-eval how it feels. With Taskpaper Dropbox sync around the corner I'll likely jump back to TP. I fiddle with systems like you do.
Great article BTW.
Rob
Rob,
I used TaskPaper for a while and I’m considering going back. For recurring tasks I used TextExpander to create TaskPaper-friendly lists. I made one for daily items, one for each day of the week, one for monthly each month. Daily items were included in each of the days of the week snippets. On the first of the month I would type the monthly snippet. It worked really well. I wrote more about my system here: http://gastongarcia.com/200... and here: http://groups.google.com/gr...
I rarely use long-term recurring tasks, so it's not a big deal to me. However, I am considering a special tag or a separate checklist that, when marked as done, resets the due date based on a @every() tag.
I use a custom script for marking @done anyway, so adding the check for a @repeat tag wouldn't be hard. Then, with my natural language date parser, I could take @every(2 days) and add it to the current date or the original due date and have the task updated instead of completed. That system would be enough for my modest needs. Thoughts?
To recap a quick conversation I had with Brett on Twitter, here's Jesse, the creator of TaskPaper, talking about why he took saved searches out of TaskPaper. Regardless, I've implemented my own saved searches using TextExpander. You can even sync your snippets and get your saves searches on iOS, too.
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